NEWINGTON — The usual group of superhero, zombie, and princess costumes will be seen trick or treating this Halloween but according to a search trends list conducted by Yahoo, pirates appear to be the most popular.

Yahoo Web Trends Analyst Vera Chan said the process of ordering search lists starts by going through a search history which includes Top Searched Halloween, Character Related, Baby/Infant, and Dog Costumes.

Movie characters had a strong influence on costume searches this year including the cast from The Avengers, DC's Batman series, and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

At iParty in Newington, costume shoppers look for adventurous, spooky, and trending looks for this October 31.

Judy Flemming of North Hampton was helping her nephew shop for a demonic assassin costume. Initially she thought he would be going as a pirate, but he had his own ideas.

“He wants to have his face made up and wants to have a crossbow,” Flemming said. “He has a great imagination.”

The crossbow had numerous accounts of exposure this year in the movies including Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Hawkeye in Marvel's The Avengers, and Merida from Disney/Pixar's Brave.

Elizabeth Bardwell of York, Maine, had her two kids, Alexis and Jack, searching the shelves for costumes.

“She already picked out a fairy costume,” Bardwell said. “She's coming out of the princess stage. Jack wants to be bloody or funny — anything inappropriate. I nixed the zombie one because all the guts were hanging out. I think for him, it'll be whatever catches his eye.”

“We took a look at Halloween costumes as early as this summer,” Chan said. “There is a lot of looking up of what a kid can wear. Halloween is a huge party occasion. It is an opportunity for a big blast for kids and adults. There's a lot of planning ahead.”

Mattel's Monster High and Lego's Ninjago rocketed to two and three. Zombies and Minnie Mouse filled out the top five as number four and five. Minnie Mouse was first on the Top Searched Character and Baby Costume lists, while placing in the top five of Top Searched Dog costumes.

“There were a lot of babies dressed as flowers based on the Anne Geddes look before,” Chan said. “Not as much this year but there are a lot of animals. The lobster one is cute and disturbing.”

Last year, Pirates of the Caribbean and vampires from the Twilight series trended high according to Chan.

“The sustainability power of some of the costumes is really surprising,” Chan said. “Power Rangers still surprises me. Some of the traditional ones are pirates. The usual costumes are up there.”

In an election year, political costumes typically would rank near the top of the lists but Chan said this year there aren't many popular searches on the subject.

“I think that it's been a long election season,” Chan said. “There might be a little fatigue. We have Election Day right on the heels of Halloween. Maybe they want to take a break.”

Chan also believes that it might be harder to pull off a costume based on Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. In 2008, Sarah Palin costumes were easy to put together based off of her well-known, unique appearance.